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Democratic Republic of Neualtenburg
The Neualtenburg Projekt is a nonprofit cooperative and self-governed community, whose purpose is to enable group ownership of high-quality public, private, and open-space land; create a themed yet expressive community of public and private builds; and implement novel democratic forms of self government within Second Life. The city is modeled after a medieval Bavarian city with postmodern architectural elements in the private sim of Neualtenburg. Most of SL is based upon the precepts of modern architecture, where land and buildings are dominated by the rectangle. One of the goals of this project is to create a city which replaces orthogonality with organic and brings together the medieval and modern. |- | align="center" colspan="2" style="font-size: 0.9em;" | City Nicknames: "Nburg, Neualt" |- | align="center" colspan="2" style="background-color: dodgerblue;" | Location |- | align="center" colspan="2" style="font-size: 0.9em;" | Map of Neualtenburg |- | align="center" colspan="2" style="background-color: dodgerblue;" | Members of Government |- |'The Guild' *Kendra Bancroft *Aliasi Stonebender *Gwyneth Llewelyn *Sudane Erato *Ulrika Zugzwang *Dianne Mechanique *Eugene Pomeray *Garnet Psaltry *Pendari Lorentz *Satchmo Prototype *Sissie Maracas |'RA Members' *Eugene Pomeray *Gwyneth Llewelyn *Sudane Erato *Satchmo Prototype *Pendari Lorentz Scientific Council *Ulrika Zugzwang *Gwyneth Llewelyn |- | align="center" colspan="2" style="background-color: dodgerblue;" | Websites |- |Neualtenburg.org |Neualtenburg Forums |} Neualtenburg Philosphy The Real-World Perspective From the perspective of the real world the Neualtenburg Projekt is a nonprofit cooperative organized from the bottom up with the goal of sharing the purchase price and monthly cost of owning a dedicated sim. External infrastructure such as on-line sales web sites and vendor reporting tools are provided at no additional cost to citizens. We have also replaced the regressive land-use fees of LL with a flat land-use fee that eliminates the small land owner's higher relative cost by sharing the burden equally among all land owners. It deserves to be said again. As a nonprofit we provide this service at absolutely no cost. The Second-Life Perspective From the perspective of our virtual world the Neualtenburg Projekt is a framework which enables its citizens to collectively direct the future of the city through a well-defined democratic process. The city itself is a planned community with consistent theme, open space, and community space for all citizens to enjoy. It is something completely different. The government is a social democracy with three branches to its government. Much thought has been given to the structure to make sure all citizens regardless of their talent have an avenue to affect change in the city and that no one group can dominate the course of the city. The goal is to create a self-sustaining project that lives on beyond its founding members through democratic governance. Private, Common, and Open Land The city land is zoned into open space (empty land and water), common space (a medieval Bavarian center and casino), and private space (privately owned tracts of land). Open space is used to separate private land and for trees. Community space consists of the medieval walled downtown city. The private space are tracts of land owned by individual citizens. The initial purchase price and the monthly rent of the private land cover the cost of the server and monthly payments respectively. Prims which are not used in the open space areas are instead allocated to private and communal space, allowing for my intricate builds. Additionally, a communal economy, consisting of rental units, a casino, and a museum, is planned. As the communal area brings in more money, the monthly payments of private owners will shrink. If the elected government feels that it is a high priority, it is conceivable that a robust communal economy could pay for the sim, dropping monthly payments to zero. Neualtenburg Government The city of Neualtenburg is a democratic republic, created as an alternative to the autocracies (rule by a single person) and oligarchies (rule by a few people) that are typical of SL. Although a democratic republic requires more work up front than its simpler counterparts, it provides a superior system for running a city. A democratic republic: * provides a well-defined system which allows individuals to share the responsibility of directing the project. * spreads the decision-making responsibility over as many people as possible to promote fairness. * allows the project to live on beyond the participation of any single member. * avoids the problem of "mob rule" found in pure democracies. Overview The government is comprised of three branches, the Representative branch, the Philosophic branch, and the Artisanal branch. Each branch has a governmental role, which defines how they affect policy within the city, and each branch has a service role, which defines how they perform SL-specific functions for the city. Representative Branch The Representative branch is democratically elected group of representatives, which hold seats in th Representative Assembly (RA). The benefit of having representatives is that allows specialization, freeing those who are not in the RA to pursue other interests. The governmental role of the RA is to create policy (through laws) that directs the course of the city. The service role of the RA is to support the public through recruitment, meetings, and events. Seats in the RA are chosen in a two-part election, where citizens first rank their preferred factions and then rank individuals within their faction. The first vote determines the number of seats a faction receives and the second vote determines who in the faction receives the seats. By voting generally for factions, it encourages citizens to focus on party platforms and not the individual personalities. Philosophic Branch The Philosophic branch is a meritocracy (rule by skill), whose members serve on the Scientific Council (SC). The benefit of a meritocracy is that it provides an avenue for those with specialized skills to review policies before they become law. The governmental role of the SC is to ensure laws are constitutional and beneficial. The service role of the SC is to provide law and contract enforcement, as well as mediation and judicial services. The SC is flat organization whose members are chosen internally and ratified externally. The goal is to create a diverse and skilled group of individuals in the field of law, science, finance, art, and political science, who are able to directly affect policy. Artisanal Branch The Artisanal branch is an ergatocracy (rule by workers), whose artisans are members of the Guild. The benefit of an ergatocracy is that it gives all those with productive skills (scripting, building, holding events) a direct role in the government. After all, in SL content is king. The governmental role of the Guild is to act as the city treasury. The service role of the Guild is to support the city infrastructure, providing structures, scripts, vendors, and so on. The Guild is open to all citizens who create content. Members of the Guild are organized in groups of Masters and Apprentices. Masters are those with a proven history of creating useful, attractive, and profitable content. All other artisans take the role of Apprentice and must seek out a Master with whom to work. This relationship provides a method to control what content is placed in the city by whom. Checks and Balances In addition to promoting fairness by spreading decision-making responsibilities over many individuals, the government also employs a series of checks and balances between each branch. The checks and balances provide mechanisms with which branches can exercise influence over the other branches. For instance, the Philosophical branch can veto laws from the Representative branch based on their constitutionality. The Artisanal branch can veto budgets or laws dealing with finance coming from the Representative branch. The Representative branch can call hearings against members of the other branches to have them ejected for unethical behavior. The government is a well-defined system which is designed to share power, prevent abuse, and sustain the project without relying on any single individual. Photo Gallery Additional Information Neualtenburg Website- Official website of Neualtenburg Neualtenburg Forums- Neualtenburg in the Second Life Group Forums Ulrikasheim- Ulrika Zugzwang's Homepage Gwyneth Llewelyn's Blog Category:Estate Sims